First Impressions from a Honda Clarity Owner

[teslarati97]

View attachment 16085
This is a chart from Battery University in Canada - yes, there is such a place. From their testing of EV batteries... say you charge daily for 50 weeks a year to commute (And a long commute at that)... that comes to 250 charges a year or 5000 cycles for 20 years of commuting. If you charge to 100% each time, after 4 years your battery's charging capacity will be down to 90%. Likewise, it will be down to 87% after ten years and 80% after twenty. Not bad when you consider most car owners buy a new car every six years. That said, the best range preservation is charging between 75-65%. Most EV chargers slow down once you reach 80% of capacity, so it is not cost effective to charge on a Level three charger above that level. Driving and charging is a compromise. What I do is charge to 100% at home on the first day of a long drive, and to 80% thereafter at public fast chargers. Generally, I keep my vehicle between 80% and the level where I need about 12 hrs of Level 1 charging at night which is closely akin to the orange line on the graph. But I also plan to keep my EV for 20 more years. The car will outlast me.

That chart is for LMO battery chemistry (Nissan Leaf) done in 2015-2016 by B. Xu et al. IONIQ 5 doesn't use LMO but SKI 811 pouch cells.

 

[10sqmiles]

Neither my Clarity PHEV nor my MINI Cooper SE let me select a maximum percentage for charging, so you must be saying "of course" in reference to all Hyundai BEVs?

Indeed, the Ioniq5 and the knoa/niro twins allow a maximum to be set, also allow for timed charging to take advantage of off-peak rates, not sure about the Ioniq EV

 

[michael-in-raleigh]

Neither my Clarity PHEV nor my MINI Cooper SE let me select a maximum percentage for charging, so you must be saying "of course" in reference to all Hyundai BEVs?

not all Hyundai BEVs, as i only have the i5 and since last month, my Clarity charges to 85% with the latest app update

 

[insightman]

not all Hyundai BEVs, as i only have the i5 and since last month, my Clarity charges to 85% with the latest app update

I chose not to enroll in Honda's SmartCharge program (it seemed too much like Big Brother to me), so my app can't do the 85% charging.

 

[michael-in-raleigh]

okaaaay, but you're not doing your battery any favors

it's not like everything about you isn't already out there for BB to find... lol

 

[insightman]

okaaaay, but you're not doing your battery any favors

it's not like everything about you isn't already out there for BB to find... lol

Our Clarity sits undriven for long stretches with between 60% and 90% charge not because I plan it that way but because my wife and I schedule our outings so both of us get to drive our electric MINI. We keep our Clarity for long trips and someday we'll take a long trip again, but we're still nervous.

 

[TNGJ]

okaaaay, but you're not doing your battery any favors

it's not like everything about you isn't already out there for BB to find... lol

You never discharge your battery fully and you never overcharge it, just charge when you can , charging to 85% clarity battery is overkill

 

[ScubaSteve]

Will the I5 let you limit the charge to a set sub-max percentage or do you have to tell Alexa to remind you to go out and unplug after a length of time you know through experimentation will achieve less than a full charge?

You can set both AC and DC charging in 10% increments. I only use 100% when going on a trip. The charging stops once you reach the level you set it to.